Eco-imperial Tensions: Decarbonization Strategies in Times of Geopolitical Upheaval

Abstract

The neoliberal world order has given way to a geopolitical disorder, shaped by the climate crisis and increasing rivalries between dominant powers. This poses a challenge to the social sciences. Neither theories searching for the problem-solving potentials of ‘global governance’ nor critical notions of imperialism seem to be equipped to fully grasp the rapidly changing circumstances. Instead, we suggest to understand the recent upheavals as eco-imperial tensions. They result from the contradictions of what we have called the imperial mode of living, that is, resource- and emissions-intensive patterns of production and consumption, which produce enormous socioecological costs and externalize them in space and time. With the rise of China and other countries of the Global South, the imperial mode of living is generalized globally and threatened in its precondition, namely the unlimited access to nature and labor power on a world scale. This is intensified by the competition for the raw materials needed for decarbonizing the advanced capitalist economies.